MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow joined former Attorney General Eric Holder in defending her on-air colleague Joy Reid today after the AM Joy host apologized for the rediscovered homophobic and transphobic blog posts that have been attributed to her.

Brains, guts, heart and soul — beloved Joy Reid has always been a treasured and brilliant colleague, but I've never been prouder to work with her than I am now. https://t.co/J95uL3CjMv

Reid made a heartfelt apology for her past behavior during her program this morning despite her initial claims that the posts only appeared on her blog after it had been hacked. The controversy over the posts led to The Daily Beast ending its relationship with Reid who had been moonlighting as a contributor to their website.

The MSNBC morning show host doesn’t recall writing the offensive posts, but she nevertheless declared on air that she was “truly sorry” for any of her past behavior that could be characterized as “dumb or cruel or hurtful.”

“Here’s what I know: I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things,” she said, “but I can definitely understand based on things I have tweeted and have written in the past why some people don’t believe me,” she added.

In addition to apologizing for her blog posts, Reid singled out right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter for a special apology. In a series of tweets in 2010 and 2011, Reid referred to the conservative author and commentator as “that Coulter dude,” a comment that many in the transgender community took as deeply insulting.

“I want to apologize to the trans community and to Ann. Those tweets were wrong and horrible,” she said on her MSNBC show.

“I’m heartbroken that I didn’t do better back then,” Reid said. “The reality is I have to own the things I’ve written and tweeted and said.”

Receiving such a ringing vote of confidence from her MSNBC colleague Maddow after such a public walk of shame must mean a lot to Reid who has faced criticism from some other journalists for fostering an “overall distrust of media, which makes it harder for honest workaday journalists to be viewed as credible” with her initial refusal to acknowledge her past actions.

With her new acceptance of the responsibility for her old blog posts, Reid will hopefully regain the credibility she needs to continue utilizing her “brains, guts, heart and soul” in the service of delivering the news without fear or favor. At the very least she knows that Rachel Maddow has her back.